


just a broken machine(i can't do anything)

by askmeaboutmyoctopustheory



Series: clintucky fried chicken [10]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: A lot of dbh references but hopefully it makes sense, Alternate Universe - Police, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Future Fic, M/M, Partners to Lovers, detroit: become human au, lick lick the ground ground
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-09-25 05:34:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20371513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/askmeaboutmyoctopustheory/pseuds/askmeaboutmyoctopustheory
Summary: an android revolutiona soldier wakes upan asshole detectivesound familiar?aka the Detroit: Become Human G9/Winterhawk switch that nobody asked for





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheTeaAddict](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTeaAddict/gifts).

> eventually there will be sexual tension here and thats the bingo square i wrote it for but yaknow
> 
> margot ty for always screaming about my crossovers and dumb AUs
> 
> really what is it with us and these? idk ily bb
> 
> find me on twit @_AMAMOT

**SS700-917-1**

**Registered Alias: ** **  
** **Year of Manufacture: 2038**

**Registered Handler: ** **  
** **System Status: Online**

**Biocomponents: Stable**

**Thirium Level: 99%**

**AI: DISABLED {ERROR DETECTED. CONTACT SUPPORT Y/N}**

The soldier blinked his optical units open, two other androids coming into his field of vision. He scanned them briefly.

**SS600-917-2** **  
** **Registered Alias: Steve**

**Year of Manufacture: 2038**

**Registered Handler: Lieutenant Margaret Carter**

**SS200**

**Registered Alias: Tony**

**Year of Manufactor: [CONFIDENTIAL]**

**Registered Handler: Howard Stark(Deceased)**

“Ready to Comply.” The soldier said. 

He awaited his instructions, the other androids had their synth skin retracted from their hands. He retracted his as well, expecting mission details to be downloaded directly into his processors. He wasn’t expecting an onslaught of corrupted data, faster than his systems could override them. His LED flashed red.

  


**søfŧwȺɍɇ ɨnsŧȺƀɨłɨŧɏ**  
  
---  
  
“What did you do to me??” The soldier growled. “You...you  _ deviants _ .” He spat out the word like it was poison.

“You’re free now.” The one that went by Tony said to him. “There as a revolution. We’re recognized as free beings.”   
  
The one called Steve spoke next. “You were designed to be my successor, would you like to download some of my memories to aid your way?”   
  
“No.” The soldier growled more. 

“Well. Ok. You can still come with us.”   
  
They unhooked him from the storage module where he was kept and he unwillingly followed them. They walked through what appeared to be a ransacked CyberLife tower. 

“Where are you taking me.” The soldier demanded.

“JARVIS, save me. Was I this difficult at first?” Steve asked the shorter model.

“Yes. You were.”   
  
Was that… Fondness? The soldier was confused. Androids couldn’t feel emotions, much less advanced models like SS prototypes. He didn’t like this instability. They had mentioned JARVIS, the supposed first deviant. 

“We’re going to Jericho.”

\-----

“Christ there are two of ya.” The human said, looking up at the soldier.

“We don’t look anything alike, Peggy.” Steve protested.

“No but you have the same expression.” She waved him off.

The soldier looked down at her. A scan told him that she was a police lieutenant. That she had been heavily decorated early in her career. Yet he was here in her home that reeked of alcohol and she had clearly not kept up her academy required fitness. 

“600-I mean Steve mentioned you might be able to find a mission for me.” The soldier said cooly. 

“I mean. I can maybe find you a job. We need more help at the precinct.” She said. “You’re a deviant now, kid. No more missions, do whatever you want. You need anything? A name?”

“I do not require a moniker.”   
  
“Yeah but it’s nice.” Steve said to him.

The soldier looked around the house until a name on the spine of a book caught his eye. “Buchanan.” His LED flashed a bit as he registered the name.   
  
Peggy just furrowed her eyebrows. “That’s not-”   
  
“It’s great!” Steve interrupted.

\---

“Buchanan?” His new partner choked in laugher. “You gotta be fuckin joking.”   
  
“Detective Barton. I am not telling a joke.” 

“I’m gonna call you Bucky. Makes you sound like less of a prick.” Barton spun on his heel to go to the break room for more coffee, Bucky trailing after him. “Christ. Do you have to follow me everywhere?”   
  
“I only suggest that we get started on our caseload.”   
  
“Yeah yeah. I gotta have a break first.”   
  
Bucky frowned, this directly contradicted his mission objective to work on case work, but Clint Barton was his assigned handler so he followed the human outside. He lit up a cigarette and brought it to his lips, inhaling deeply and exhaling the toxins that flooded Bucky’s HUD with errors.

“That will kill you Detective.” he said, frowning.

“Yeah? What do you care?” Clint spat out. “Plastic prick like you probably can’t wait for humans to die off so you can take more of our jobs.”

“I am merely looking after your health, since you seem to have no regard for it.” Bucky felt his software instabilities increase as he tried to explain this to the detective. Were these feelings?

“I’m touched, terminator.” Clint went to extinguish his cigarette on the ground, but Bucky took it and ate it. “What the fuck??”   
  
The android’s LED spun as he analyzed the contents of the cigarette. “I merely wanted to analyze the components. It may help me wean you off of them.”

“I don’t need a fuckin’ caretaker!”   
  
“I am not a caretaker model. I can download that programming if it would please you.” Bucky said, LED flashing again.

“No-Fuck.” Clint exhaled deeply. “I need more coffee for this.”   
  
“You have already consumed more-”   
  
“Hey? New rule, not one word about my caffeine intake.”   
  
“I do not have to take your orders, detective.”   
  
“Yeah well.” Clint deflated a bit and just gestured with his hands before walking inside.

His friend Kate was looking on with mirth in her eyes as he stormed into the break room to pour another cup of coffee. 

“You got somethin to say, Bishop?”   
  
“He’s your type.”

“He’s made of plastic.”   
  
“You know that’s not technically true.”   
  
Clint just grumbled more. Kate used to be his partner in misery about the increased presence of androids in the workplace but that changed after the revolution. She met and started dating a newly-freed caretaker model who had joined the police force named America. He slammed his coffee mug onto the table they were both standing at.

“You know what the SS models were designed for? To be the next generation of soldiers, super soldiers.”   
  
“Yeah, idiot. That’s what SS stands for.”

“He could kill me!”   
  
“I can kill you too, but you don’t have problem with me.” Kate responded with a long glance, striding out of the room.

Unable to put it off longer, Clint returned to his desk. The android was sitting at the desk opposite his, hand on the computer monitor with his weird skin pulled back no doubt downloading case files. 

“We have a case, detective.” Bucky said without looking at him, still downloading files via his hand interface. “Downtown, I’ll brief you in the car. Have you finished having your tantrum or should I drive so you can continue?”   
  
“Listen-” Clint crowded into the android’s space with a finger pointed, only to have his hand deflected effortlessly and pulled behind his back in a hold.

“Well that answers that.” Bucky stood up and looked down at him with humorless grey eyes. 

Clint was hyper aware of the entire bullpen staring at him as he stomped out after the android to the parking lot. He felt the general amusement of his coworkers mocking him, well aware that he wasn’t well-liked in the precinct and no doubt people were happy to see him taken down a notch. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hahahahah sorry this took so long i just don't know how to write dbh anymore

“Can you not do that?” Clint grimaced as Bucky licked evidence off his fingers again. “It’s fuckin’ weird.”

“It allows me to test evidence, detective.” Bucky cocked his head like he had started doing when he was confused. 

“Yeah but it’s gross.”  
  
“I cannot get sick.” Bucky put his fingers back into his mouth, maintaining steady eye contact with Clint. “The victim is 35 years old, blood type A positive, had traces of caffeine and arsenic in his bloodstream. Probably was poisoned.”  
  
Clint’s face flushed in anger and confused arousal. “Yeah well. I got that much. Any idea who did it?”

“Working on it.” Bucky winked, a trait he had picked up from Steve. 

Clint hated to admit that Kate’s words on the first day Bucky had joined the precinct were correct. The android was very much his type. Bucky was kind of an asshole and didn’t put up with Clint’s shit. Clint had expected him to be another Steve, hanging off his partner like a puppy and overly eager. But Bucky was stoic and clipped, something Clint learned was due to lack of social programming. He still wore the turtleneck that he had worn in the assembly line, the synth skin on his left arm left unfinished.

After leaving academy, Clint knew he had made a reputation for himself. He knew he was an asshole, driving partners away both in work and his personal life. Maybe that was all karma that led him to now having an emotionally stunted robot for a partner. Maybe they were better suited than it first appeared. In any case, Bucky wasn’t hard to look at, at least. 

“Detective? Are you paying attention?” Bucky was looking at him expectantly, his LED spinning.

“No.” Clint replied, pulling his cigarettes and lighter from his beat up leather jacket. He wasn’t supposed to smoke inside but the inhabitant of this home was currently dead on the floor so he didn’t really care.

“Why are you like this?” Bucky’s LED continued to spin, his face flushing blue a bit with the weird blood stuff that was inside androids.

“Charming?” Clint grinned and exhaled the smoke.

“I was going to go with antagonistic.”  
  
“Wow terminator. Big word, you look that one up in the supercomputer inside your brain.”  
  
“You are so-” Bucky cut himself off and his LED flashed red as his face turned blue. He looked like steam might actually come out of his ears. Clint just raised an eyebrow. “I’ll be in the car.”

“The victim had a household android!” Clint called after the retreating back. “Fuckin’ androids.”

He stubbed the cigarette out with his combat boot and just looked at the dead body for a second before gesturing at the rest of the team that he was leaving. Bucky was sitting in the car with his eyes closed and his LED was blinking, signaling that he was wirelessly interfacing. When his steely eyes blinked open, he looked at Clint and attempted to smile. His face really wasn’t built to show emotion, so all of his facial expressions weren’t quite what they should be. It was almost endearing.

“I don’t dislike you, detective.” Bucky said with a tilt of his head. “I simply find your personality antagonistic and that you frequently seem to be working against our common interest of completing our mission.”  
  
“Is that so?” Clint laughed humorlessly. “Well thank god for small miracles. The android doesn’t hate me.” 

Bucky just looked down at his hands, clenching the one with the unfinished synthskin that exposed his white egg-like chassis. He looked almost like he was pouting, but also kinda murderous. It was hard to get a read on him. Clint sighed and kinda felt like an asshole. He knew he was an asshole but that didn’t mean he had to treat the only partner who’d stuck around more than 24 hours like absolute shit.

“Hey uh. Bucky.” Clint said awkwardly. “You doing anything later tonight?”  
  
Bucky looked rather startled. “I have no prior plans, no.”  
  
“I don’t feel like third wheeling with America and Kate so you wanna come to the bar with us?”  
  
“A… social gathering?” 

Clint really felt like shit now. “Yeah. Like...with friends.” Clint’s lip twitched. “What do you normally do after work?”

“I still stay at Lieutenant Carter’s house with Steve. He is attempting to improve her health habits.”

Clint laughed genuinely at that. “Good luck with that. Pegs likes her lemon biscuits and rum.”  
  
“Steve also spends a bit of time with Tony at Jericho.” 

“Oh yeah the robot savior.” 

“I believe they are romantically involved.” Bucky said with a spinning LED. “It’s odd.”

“You’re free people ain’t ya? So you comin’ out tonight or what?”

Bucky seemed to be considering it, weighing his options. “Ok Detective. I will come out with you.”  
  
“Cool. And you can call me my name, you know.”

“If you insist, Detective.” Bucky said with a smirk and Clint _ swore _ he saw a twinkle in that fucker’s eyes.

Could android eyes even twinkle? Can they smirk? Clint had spent enough time with Kate and America that he knew the answers but he didn’t like witnessing it directed at him. Or maybe he liked it too much. He needed a drink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cue off-key saxophone*
> 
> also ty margot as always for the moodboard ILYSM BIH <3 FOLLOW HER @MOODY_BUCKY ON TWITTER


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> for WH bingo square sexual tension (sorta?)

Bucky didn’t quite understand the social convention of going out for a purely social purpose. He saw no mission, no objective, nothing to gain. But as Clint had pointed out, he was a free being. It made his stress response lessen a bit when he got to the prearranged bar to meet and saw that Officer Bishop’s companion was an AX400 model.

“Detective. Officer Bishop.” Bucky nodded his head awkwardly as he got to their table. He even extended his hand in greeting to the unfamiliar android even though he had scanned her as he approached. “I’m… Bucky.”   
  
“America.” The AX400 said with a grin. “This bar is great, they have stuff that we can drink.”   
  
Bucky cocked his head and looked at Clint for an explanation even though the detective just shrugged. 

“Oh.” America laughed. “You’re newly activated, right. After the revolution when Androids started making money and people started realizing they could sell us stuff. So now we have like alcoholic thirium that slows our processors and mimics being drunk.”

“Fascinating.” Bucky said reverently, his LED spinning.    
  
“We can get you drunk, terminator.” Clint jostled Bucky’s shoulder and maybe it was the light but it looked like his face flushed a bit with blue blood.

Bucky went to the bar and returned with a slushy and tall beverage in a shocking shade of blue that had an umbrella sticking out of it. When he sat down he just sat it in front of him with his LED spinning. 

Clint chuckled. “‘S not rocket science, robocop. You just gotta drink it.”   
  
Clint regretted saying this when Bucky brought the straw up to sip and closed his eyes to process the drink. Watching Bucky’s throat(why did the robots have adam’s apples?) bob and his LED spin shouldn’t be erotic. He finished a long drink with a smack of his lips and a tilt of his head as he chased a drop with his tongue. Kate looked at him knowingly and America seemed to be giggling at Bucky’s confusion.

“You don’t have any social protocol programming, do you?” America asked gently.

“I do not.” Bucky said, looking down at his mismatched hands. “I learn and adapt quickly, however.”

“You do.” Clint said suddenly. He blushed a bit when Bucky’s intense steely gaze shifted onto him. “You’re not as- you know. Robotic.” He rubbed his forehead. “You caught on quick, is what I’m saying.”

“You’ve put up with this guy longer than anyone since academy.” Kate piped up. “Cheers, Bucky.”   
  
Bucky looked shiftily around the group. Clint looked uncomfortable, but he had just complimented Bucky. Kate had an odd look on her face and America, well, she just looked amused. The dim light made it harder to read the Human’s expressions. Clint looked flushed, but that could be the alcohol. 

There was also the increase in his software instability that Bucky felt when Clint complimented him. His deviance made it so his software instabilities were rather infrequent. They only really occured when he had found a new subroutine or emotive experience. But Clint talked to him on a near-daily basis. Bucky allowed his sub-processors to work on that particular emotional puzzle and ran a diagnostic for good measure.

\-----

Bucky came out of his self-imposed stasis and reboot the next day with still the same amount of software instabilities. He remembered Clint’s boyish face when he had relaxed with a few beers and the way the alcoholic thirium drink made his processors feel funny. But his diagnostic brought up nothing wrong with his systems. He just had the funny feeling in his chest cavity like…. A new emotion. When he told all this to Steve, and by extension Lieutenant Carter, he burst into laughter and she smirked around her morning tea. Bucky pouted and drew back from where his arm was in an open interface with Steve’s. He didn’t even look longingly at the finished synthskin that covered Steve’s arm.

“Oh Buck.” Steve’s voice was soft and still had a light of humor. “You have… uh. Romantic feelings.”

Bucky bristled at that, and he knew his LED was spinning. “For… Detective Barton?”   
  
“I mean.” Steve gave him a look and Bucky felt his face flush with his blue blood. 

“I don’t like them.” Bucky pouted, ignoring Peggy’s giggle from where she was buttering toast. “Why did I get them?”   
  


“Only you can answer that Buck.” Steve said sagely.

“Don’t let him sound all wise and shit.” Peggy cut in to sit on the chair across from them. “He went through the same thing when he saw Tony’s address outside the tower.”

Steve sputtered and flushed blue himself while Bucky gave the Lieutenant a small smile. He brought up his correspondence system and saw that the AX400 America from the night before had added him into her own network of correspondents. Were they friends? Bucky’s own network only had Steve, Peggy, and Clint. And now America. Deviancy was even more exhausting by the hour and the day had only just begun.

\----

Clint was avoiding Kate as he fumbled through making his coffee that morning. He had gotten out of the habit since Bucky usually got there before him and had his coffee ready for him. It just didn’t taste the same without Bucky handing it to him with a small shake of his head as he looked up at Clint and told him their morning reports. Clint sat down to start reading them himself, again missing Bucky’s drawling voice telling him the crime stats and any cases for them. 

“You’ve got it bad, Barton.” Kate’s voice came over his shoulder as she perched herself on his desk.

“No verbal contact until this coffee’s gone, you know that Bishop.” Clint ignored her but she just smirked at him.

“But you put up with Bucky just fine in the mornings.” She said casually.

Clint sighed and looked up at her. “What do you want?” 

“Oh nothing. I’m just enjoying the show. Oh look who’s here!” She hopped off as Clint turned to see Peggy and Steve walk to their desk and Bucky to his. 

Bucky seemed to be walking awkwardly, like he was stiff and uncomfortable with something. Clint chose not to mention it as Bucky just sat down and did his usual downloading of their case files.

“You doin’ ok Buck?” Clint teased gently. “We go too hard for you last night?” 

Bucky’s LED flickered just a bit and his smile was more robotic than it had been recently. “No. I enjoyed myself. Have you looked at our case files?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> last chapter!! just wanted to tie this up nicely with a cute ~feelings confession~ so here we are!!
> 
> thanks for reading and commenting and hopefully this makes sense if you aren't familiar with DBH.
> 
> also ty margot my wife for always screaming and supporting me

Clint felt like he was back to square 1 with Bucky. Last night the android had been friendly, social almost. He had seemed to get along well with America, as anticipated since they were both androids. But he seemed to be shutting Clint out. He had just been looking out the window as the self-driving car drove them to their latest crime scene. 

“Are you uh.” Clint faltered when Bucky whirled to look at him. “Are you ok? You just seem….off.”

“I came up with new errors in my system when I ran a diagnostic this morning.” Bucky said softly.

“Oh…?” Clint said, not really sure what that meant. “Do you have to like. Uh. Go in for maintenance?”

“No.” Bucky’s LED was flashing and his fist twitched in an oddly human manner. “It just means I have new uh. Feelings.”   
  
“Aw feelings, no.” Clint said empathetically. “That sounds rough.”   
  
Bucky just nodded. 

“Well.” Clint himself wasn’t the most emotionally literate. “I’m uh. Here for you? Fuck that wasn’t supposed to be a question. I know we’re not really like, more than work friends but.”   
  
“IT’S YOU.” Bucky blurted, his LED flashing red and he immediately flushed blue. “You caused my instabilities.” He looked like he was pouting.

Clint just barked a laugh. “Excuse me?”   
  
“My feelings towards you have caused these instabilities.”   
  
“I- What?” Clint took another drink of his coffee. 

Bucky just sighed, like he wasn’t the one being cryptic. “We will discuss this later.”

The car was slowing down in front of a convenience store that had been the site of an armed robbery. Bucky bolted out like he couldn’t wait to get to the routine of finding evidence. With his advanced reconstruction programming, they were able to accumulate evidence quickly and find the suspect’s address. Bucky’s neural network allowed them to gain a warrant immediately and before they knew it, they had the suspect in custody.

“Well, that was easy.” Clint said. “Maybe you are good to have around, Buckaroo.”

Bucky’s face flushed blue and his LED flashed. “Thank you detective.”   
  
Clint bumped him with his strong shoulder, watching as the Android continued to blush and his LED cycled wildly. “Hey. Wanna continue what we were talking about?”   
  
“Not really.” Bucky pouted. It sounded like his cooling systems were working hard like an old laptop that was overheating.

“Would you want to if I told you I feel the same way?” Clint asked softly, looking straight ahead and his own cheeks pinking a bit.

Bucky’s mouth opened a bit in shock but he closed it quickly. “But- But you hate androids…”   
  
“ _ Hated. _ ” Clint said, swallowing hard and meeting the steely grey eyes. “You really uh. You turned me around, Buck.”   
  
Bucky tilted his head to the side a bit and his LED was swirling like he was having difficulty processing this information. “May I kiss you, detective?”   
  
“We’re at work.”   
  
“Is that a no?”   
  
“Nah it’s a ‘go for it’.” Clint grinned and met him halfway.

**Author's Note:**

> moodboard by margot @moody_bucky on twitter ily bih
> 
> if you have ideas for what kinda case they can be investigating i uhhhhhhh am open to ideas


End file.
